How I made $85,000 with my side hustle as a product designer

Let's look back at my side income I made in the year 2021! In 2020, I made a goal to make $40,000 in 2021. Did I achieve that goal? Let's get into it!
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//LINKS
Looking for 1:1 mentorship or feedback on your portfolio? Book a session with me on Superpeer: superpeer.com/femke
Looking for a new design job? Browse my job board of fresh product design roles: pallet.xyz/list/femkedesign-j...
//TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
1:19 - Total side project income
2:28 - Breakdown
3:26 - Best months
4:05 - Lowest months
4:24 - Income streams: community membership subscriptions
5:00 - 1:1 mentoring
5:45 - Products
6:40 - Affiliate
8:01 - Job board
9:09 - Sales
10:10 - Cost of goods sold
10:46 - Expenses
10:55 - Freelancers
11:37 - Computer software and hosting
12:00 - Computer hardware
12:25 - Education and training
12:50 - Boring fees
13:01 - Outro
// MORE
Join my community!: www.femke.design/community
Website: www.femke.design
Podcast: www.designlife.fm/
Twitter: / femkesvs
Instagram: / femkedotdesign
My logo animation is done by Austin Saylor: www.austinsaylor.com/
My brand is designed by Black & White studios: www.blackandwhitestudios.nz/
Videos are edited by Molen Audiovisual: / molen.audiovisual
Thumbnails are designed by Flo Wong: www.flowong.com/
//GET STARTED IN UX
Visit this link for a list of curated UX Design resources and tools: www.femke.design/resources

[@NasNazeem]

Thanks for sharing Femke! This is something I'm trying to build towards as a new Product Designer. Making additional income on top of my full-time income is GOALS ✨

[@charlimarieTV]

You're freaking KILLING IT!!!!

[@femkedesign]

Thank you Charli! 💜

[@susanneaubert8907]

Yay Femke!! So happy for you. Go on a nice holiday girl!!! Treat yoself :D You're such a champion. Thank you for all your amazing content, you have no idea how much impact you have on newbies in the design community

[@femkedesign]

Thank you Susanne!

[@UdokaChima]

Thanks for sharing Femke! This is great inspiration and practical advice as I consider different approaches to monetizing my skills outside of a FT job.

[@facundogimenez1679]

Femke you’re so inspiring! Thank youuu I’m excited to keep growing!

[@oliavolha]

This is very encouraging! Thank you so much, Femke !

[@DarshanGajara]

What a year! Congrats and keep up with it, Femke ✨

[@hugoheleniaz]

Thanks for sharing, Femke. And also thank you for keeping pt-br subtitles, helps a lot.

[@femkedesign]

You're welcome 😊

[@MaddyBeard]

Way to go, Fem!!! This is amazing🤗

[@joaomarcelofm]

Congrats Femke! Really well earned 👏

[@coins8602]

Congrats on totally surpassing your goal!

[@furquan101]

Smashed it!!!! Thanks for sharing Fem 🙌

[@femkedesign]

Thanks bud!!!

[@AndresTheDesigner]

Congratulations! This is super inspiring. Thank you for sharing 🚀🚀🚀

[@femkedesign]

Thank you 🙌

[@notjennybounmivilay]

So inspiring! Thank you for sharing Femke.

[@femkedesign]

thanks jenny!

[@sarroora]

I recently discovered your channel and I love the quality of content you share. This was super useful, thank you so much!

[@femkedesign]

You're so welcome!

[@MoyzonRecords]

Very inspiring to watch. Thanks for being honest and open to your community. Really happy that I have found your channel about 1 year ago and every New video is always something interesting to watch. Wish you all the best in 2022 year. You deserve more attention, people and subscribes. The hardwork you putting into all of this is trully amazing and I don't know where you find time for all of these :) Thanks again, Big Hello from Moldova Country, Chisinau City (even here you have fans

[@femkedesign]

Thank you so much!! This is such a kind comment, I appreciate it :)

[@ayal1]

thanks for sharing that, it's quite helpful and transparent, you're the best! ♥️✨

[@femkedesign]

You're so welcome!

[@you_are_welcome97]

Really inspiring, thanks for sharing

[@laurenkimm]

Thank you so much for being so transparent and sharing your journey Femke! I've learned a TON from you over the years. I'm wondering how you thought about building your income strategy (I know you mentioned at the end of your video that you're thinking about doing this moving forward), but what are your thoughts for someone who just wants to start out. What kind of free content did you start with or how did you know what needs were most needed by your audience? Thank you! Your videos are the reason why/how I broke into design!

[@femkedesign]

Hi Lauren! I did a lot of stuff for free initially to see what piqued interest, gathered feedback and learned what folks found valuable. I think it's good to start with something low lift just to test the waters before moving into bigger ticket items!

[@Sadman_sakib]

Brilliant effort!

[@hermesjuan]

Always useful to get some insight on the financial aspect of our careers. Being a Product designer from latam always makes me wonder how income can be compared working here vs a place like Canada, US, etc. Thanks for sharing

[@femkedesign]

You're welcome!

[@flob.8974]

Inspiring. Thank you!

[@femkedesign]

You are so welcome!

[@azharhabeebmohameds7920]

What an inspiration - Would love to collaborate with you in the future, Not as a client but as a design person :)

[@shortybhavz]

Wow, this was amazing. It makes me feel so inspired to do more. Thanks for sharing and being so transparent about it. You surely got a lot of freelance work done. It would be great if you could create a video about how do you find clients as a freelancer, how do you send your quotations and how you make sure that you get paid on time. Like an end-to-end freelancer journey of a full-time job person.

[@femkedesign]

Thank you! However, I don't do traditional design freelance work. The client work I do is more in a brand sponsorship capacity rather than design work.

[@victordelacruz8440]

Wave accounting is 🔥. I use it here in the USA.

[@karlmonkeyc]

Literal hero!!

[@fadyaal-khuzaiejavad7044]

It really is very very hard to start working as a product designer since there’re way way too many who want to work in this business. This is the fact that nobody told me before I put too much money and energy into it.

[@aliivmark335]

You are such a rockstar, Femke! Thank you so much for sharing and Kudos to you! As a side project, I'm working on how/what to do for my gluten-free for families food blog and this has been immensely helpful. Have you considered running a workshop for folks on how to "get started as a content creator" where you go into a bit more granular detail?

[@femkedesign]

I haven't considered this! But more and more folks seem to be interested in this.

[@franciscoramos8341]

Nice! Very impressed with all of your videos and passion for UX. Do you even get to sleep?! lol

[@femkedesign]

haha yes :)

[@dahitman55]

Hi Femke. Was this side hustle in addition to having your FT gig as a product designer? I'm wondering if someone can actually have two FT design related jobs.

[@09mubarak]

Early bird 🦅.

[@laxxai]

Would love to see how you spend and invest the money

[@femkedesign]

I just bought a house at the end of 2021, so that's where it went!

[@VonsarYT]

How do you balance your full-time job with free time and side hustles? I assume you work 35-40 hrs plus a week?

[@femkedesign]

Here’s a podcast episode from last year where I talk about this with my co-host Charli www.designlife.fm/episode/213

[@JoseFGP]

Can someone share the newin portafolio masterclass link??

[@femkedesign]

www.process-masterclass.com/femkefriends

[@funnzypink]

Hey, Canadian here! How do you do tax for your side income?

[@femkedesign]

With Wealthsimple tax :)

[@laxxai]

Do you get income from Instagram too? Do you want to quit your full time job in order to try this KZbin thing full time?

[@femkedesign]

I sometimes will work with brands for sponsored instagram posts. And no I'm not interested in full time KZbin 😅

[@fadyaal-khuzaiejavad7044]

So basically you made money mentoring newbies?

[@lunabeige]

u do youtube, u have a full time job, u did all these side hustles... do u have a life aside work?

[@lunabeige]

makin so much money is useless if not using it for fun

[@femkedesign]

Absolutely I do! I prefer to keep it private though :)

[@annanabil73]

Majority of the side hustles are passive income. It's a lot of work up front, but once established, passive income won't need as much maintenance as a full-time job and KZbin. Plus I'm sure she has some help like an assistant or an editor -- or both.